Internet Users From Nepal

As per Nepal Telecom Authority latest report (August 2012), We got around 50 lakhs internet users from Nepal among which 46 lakhs are the GPRS users. We got high penetration rate but the huge number of GPRS users. This distinctly shows that we are back in broadband and yet we are still using our phone and GPRS for only social communication purpose.

New update:

Although through 2010 less than 23 percent of Nepal’s population used the Internet, use of the Internet in Nepal is growing rapidly. This is the result of a competitive Internet service provider (ISP) market and Internet.org Projects. Thirty-one private ISPs offer Internet access to businesses and consumers, through few, Worldlink, Websurfer and Mercantile, dominate the market with a combined share of more than 70 percent. Cyber cafes are important sources of Internet access for Nepalis; the country is believed to have the highest concentration of cybercafés in the world. Much of Nepal’s Internet access is concentrated in the more-developed Katmandu Valley region, as the mountainous terrain and low income in remote regions of the country make access more difficult. However, one effort to bring Internet access to rural populations.The Nepal Wireless Networking Project—has already wirelessly connected seven remote mountain villages to the Internet, with plans to network twenty-one villages in all. With recent availability of the state-owned Nepal Telecom’s nationwide WiMAX based WiFi hotspot services, the reach of Internet has even widen.

Although relatively few Nepalis presently get their news from the Internet, it has nevertheless become an important source of independent news in Nepal. When King Gyanendra assumed authoritarian control in 2005, for example, traditional media were either shut down or heavily censored to ensure the publication of only favorable news about the monarch. Nepali bloggers became an important political voice and source of information to the world about the situation unfolding inside the country.